When children are targets of predators

Former Bedford police officer Brian Alexander, 54, is in jail without bond, facing six charges of possession of child pornography.

Two Virginia Tech students, both teenagers, sit in Montgomery County Regional jail without bond for the death of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell of Blacksburg. Investigators say 18-year-old David Edmond Eisenhauer,, an engineering student at Tech and a track star from high school in Maryland, had sexual contact with Lovell before she was stabbed to death.

In Floyd County, former Farm Credit Manager and high school sports announcer Greg Clabaugh and his war veteran son went to prison for possessing and distributing child pornography.

In May of last year, Circuit Judge Marc Long sent 21-year-old Randy Lee Phillips of IndianValley to prison for 14 years for 29 counts of child pornography.

“I do believe you are a threat to society,” Long told Phillips at sentencing. “Child pornography is not a victimless crime.”

A Floyd County jury didn’t take long to convict Richard Earl Bishop II for several rapes of an elementary school student when she was 12 and 13, claiming “it wasn’t rape, it was love. ”

The jury spent even less time to sentence Bishop to multiple life sentences in prison, which is where he will remain for the rest of his life. Virginia doesn’t have parole.

Yet Virginia Tech students routinely get reduced sentences for horrific crimes against children.

Football running back Shai McKenzie had sex with two girls, one 14 and the other 15. His sentence? 15 days in jail and 50 hours of community service.

Fellow Virginia Tech student Devin Gavion had sex with the same 14 year old. He got 20 days of jail time and 50 hours of community service.

A review of court cases involving students at the university of Blacksburg show serious felonies, particularly those involving sexual abuse of children, is often “plea bargained” down to misdemeanors with little or not jail time.

Too young, too vulnerable.

Fondness for sex with children is not limited to the student body at Tech. William Arthur Jones was an instructor at Tech and admitted guilt when a charged with 68 counts of sex wit a 13 year old Pulaski girl he met online.

Jones, 44, claimed he 23. The girl, 31 years younger than he, said she was also 23. In reality, she had just turned 13 when she and Jones started their relationship online. On Dec. 2, 2013, Jones drove to her house “almost every night” and she would sneak out and go to his home in Radford for “a variety of sex acts.”

Jones, Radford Commonweath’s Attorney Chris Rehak said in court, “drove her every time and had her back home and in bed by 4:30 a.m.”

Rehak said Jones, over a six-week period, took the 13-year-old’s virginity and had to “teach and instruct the girl how to perform sex acts. It’s clear she was infatuated and enamored with someone showing her attention.”

Jones realized when they met that the girl was not 23. She then claimed she was 18.

Circuit Judge Joey Showalter originally sentenced Jones to 45 years in prison for the multiple charges but the defense asked for reconsideration and he later reduced the sentence to 29 years after admitting “thinking” about the case.

Showalter said the sentencing gave him “great pains.”

Rehak argued that the victim “became almost brainwashed” by Jones.

That girl lived but faces years of counseling.

Nicole Lovell of Blacksburg did not live. Her online “adventure” with an older man brought a young life to an end.